The art group FUL presents EUROPA EUROPA – An anti-nationalist cabaret in unique collaboration with The Knife

Why do we build walls against heroes?

With cakes, exclusively produced cabaret music by The Knife, voguing, love and admiration, the cabaret Europa Europa praises all those hundreds of thousands of people who defy the cameras, the deadly waters, the barbed wire, the violence and the compact political resistance, and make it across the external and internal borders of Europe every year. Borders that are growing more monitored with every day that passes.

For many years now, the media and the public debate have concentrated on discussing migration and migrants in terms of volumes, difficulties and costs for non-migrants. Europa Europa does the exact opposite. We want to praise these people and criticize those who are truly criminal, i.e. border patrols, Frontex and the governments of the EU, who constantly pose a threat to the life and safety of these heroes.

Europa Europa premiered on the 1st of July in Almedalen, Gotland, during the political week of the election year. Performances was given on outdoor stages in various cities throughout Sweden up until the election, free of charge for all visitors. The cabaret Europa Europa is part of a movement that exists both within activism and academia, where individuals are trying to expose the human rights violations that are committed by Sweden and the EU every day. The European migration and asylum policies enable these violations.

– We need change today. The politicians must stop looking the other way and start making the connections between their own decisions and priorities and the people that never survive the trip across the Mediterranean, says Nasim Aghili, director and writer of the cabaret.

During 2015 the performance has reached big audiences in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. In november 2016 Europa Europa will do a tour in Mexico and the US. The tour is made possible through a collaboration between the art group Ful and the Swedish Embassy in Mexico and will be adapted to the situation migrants face in Mexico and USA. We will perform in Spanish and English and the musicians Paulina Lasa and Moisés Horta will not only take on the original music by The Knife, they will also perform on stage with the Swedish actors. Around the performances there will be talks, workshops and other activities to bring activists and migrants, academics and authorities together to share their perspectives.

With the support of the Swedish Art Council, Konstnärsnämnden and the Swedish Institute. Thank you to our partners Swedish Embassy Mexico, CECUT, Casa del Lago, Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Swedish Consulate of San Diego and the Swedish Embassy in Washington.

16th of November 2016: CECUT, Tijuana

17th of November 2016: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

19th and 23rd of November 2016: Casa del Lago, Mexico City

25th and 26th of November 2016: Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro

Past performances:

19th and 20th of September 2015: Incubate Festival, Tilburg, the Netherlands.

21st and 22nd of August 2015: Kampnagel festival, Hamburg, Germany.

21st of Mars 2015: Theaterzaal, Gent, Belgium

14th of September 2014: Södra teatern, Stockholm

30th and 31st of August 2014: Vitabergsparken, Stockholm (Parkteatern/Kulturhuset Stadsteatern)

24th of August 2014: Botkyrka, Stockholm

23rd of August 2014: Tensta, Stockholm

16th of August 2014: Malmö

15th of August 2014: Gothenburg

1st of July 2014: Almedalen, Visby (Premiere)

Fort Europa

Today, it’s basically impossible for people without a European passport to get into the EU legally. The possibilities of getting a visa are close to non-existent for individuals suspected of having reasons to seek asylum. Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq are some examples of war-torn countries where the citizens don’t stand a chance to get a visa, not even for visiting the union. This is why they are forced to try more dangerous roads to get into Europe. Even though it’s a human right to seek asylum, the EU is refusing to grant these people the right and those who try nonetheless are considered criminal and illegal. When in truth, it’s the member countries that are criminal, the legislation that is illegal.

The consequences of the shared European asylum and migration politics that the member countries have developed during the last decades are brutal. Since the mid-nineties, human rights organizations have documented over 30 000 deaths that occurred en route to Europe or were caused by migration-political actions. The EU conducts mass deportations to life-threatening places, keeps hundreds of thousands of innocent people in detention centers, splits up families, creates rightlessness and forces people to inhumane waiting on decisions that may never be made.

Frontex (2014)

– Right now there’s a situation in Italy, with 95 people involved. They are migrants from North Africa. When the tragedy with the 350 people who died outside Lampedusa happened in October 2013, we watched it here on the screens, says a young employee who won’t and can’t reveal hir name.

Ze works at the headquarters of Frontex in a glittering grey 20-story building in Warsaw. There’s a Starbucks on the ground floor, and some stories up the 315 employees of Frontex are watching boat refugees in the Mediterranean die almost simultaneously as it happens. On a big screen with a satellite feed of all of Europe, the information is constantly updating, showing ongoing operations and people who are trying to get into the union illegally.

Frontex has one mission, and one mission only: to secure (1) the external borders of Europe. Frontex is the symptom of the militarization of the external borders of the EU and the criminalization of refugees, which are both rapidly growing. With the help of guards, surveillance cameras and big ships that are steered by policemen, the borders of the EU shall be secured.

This is advanced intelligence work, and each quarter Frontex produces risk analyses where all details and differences in the number of illegal border crossings (2) are described meticulously. The control and surveillance of the external borders of the EU should be efficient (3). But suits in a skyscraper in Poland can’t carry out the control and surveillance single-handedly. The work that Frontex carries out is more operative.

When the authorities of any state with an external border, like Italy, France, Greece or Spain are overwhelmed, they can call in Frontex to help them secure (4) the borders. The bureau will send reinforcements, their own border patrols, which consist of policemen from all over the union. Sweden has 60 European border guards. They are assigned to missions that last for a month, and their duties are to scout the border and preferably make sure that no refugees enter the union. If they cannot stop the refugees, they arrest them, interrogate them and shuffle them off to the local migration authorities, no matter how criticized the asylum process and the reception of refugees of the Member State might be. The scouting can be conducted at sea, in the air or on land.
The operations that Frontex partake in have names like Amazon redux (focuses on immigration from South America), Zorba that focuses on the Balkans, and Zarathustra that works towards the Middle East.

– We see a lot on this job, there are many families with children who come here, of course it makes you feel things. But we’re policemen and you have to be professional as a policeman, says Peter Helgers, a Dutch policeman who is temporarily stationed (by Frontex) in the Greek city Orestiada, close to the Turkish border.

Peter Helgers sits well groomed in a plaid shirt in a hotel lobby in Orestiada and tells us about his work. Together with the Greek police ze patrols the borders between Turkey and Greece and makes sure that no refugees get through. The goal is to stop them before they leave Turkey.

Peter Helgers thinks that it’s nice to be abroad for a while to work, to be away from hir regular job at different airports in the Netherlands. But it’s really not a vacation, like hir friends seem to believe, ze says and smiles.

Do you know what happens to the people you capture?

– I don’t know much about what happens to them afterwards. People don’t have to try to get into the EU illegally. If they need to be protected they can simply go to the embassy and write a letter, do it the normal way, says Peter Helgers.

But that’s not true. Europe doesn’t grant visas to people who might try to stay in the country and seek asylum.

– Really? I thought that was how it goes. Well, it’s not my business anyways.

Except for the work at the borders Frontex has two other main assignments, to support research on safe border checkpoints and transport people who have no legal right (5) to be in Europe out of the union. It’s called Joint Operations. Sweden has forcefully deported people to for instance Iraq, Kosovo and Burundi throughout the years. During these deportations, Frontex assisted in finding other countries that also deported people to the same countries. This means that Sweden has collaborated with Norway, Germany, Finland and Hungary in order to deport people from Europe. Most of the time, it’s been people who sought asylum in Europe. We have been sending people to Iraq, Kosovo, Burundi, Serbia and Uzbekistan. The Member States of Europe simply charter planes to use for deportations together.

Because of Frontex, the surveillance of the borders of Europe has become more efficient (6), which is exactly what the politicians wanted when they decided to launch Frontex ten years ago. At that point, 20,000 people had died at the borders of Europe in ten years’ time. Frontex states that tens of thousands of illegal border crossings (7) are discovered every year. And the deaths at the borders continue. During the fall of 2013 alone, hundreds of people were reported dead, refugees who died on their way to Europe in boats all over the Mediterranean. People from Syria, North Africa and Afghanistan have lost their lives the past few months, and at the same time politicians keep giving money to Frontex, money that funds Frontex’ work on making the less life-threatening roads to Europe more impenetrable.

_________

(1) When Frontex talks about “securing” it means preventing people from their right to seek asylum and move freely in the world.

(2) The term “illegal border crossings” refers to how many people put their lives at stake when they try to cross the European borders that are growing more monitored with every day that passes.

(3) “Efficient” refers to when Frontex uses all means possible to prevent people from using their right to seek asylum and move freely in the world.

(4) When Frontex talks about “securing” it means preventing people from their right to seek asylum and move freely in the world.

(5) The term “legal right” refers to the migration politics of the Member States that deny some people the rights that are given to others.

(6) “Efficient” refers to when Frontex uses all means possible to prevent people from using their right to seek asylum and move freely in the world.

(7) The term “illegal border crossings” refer to how many people put their lives at stake when they try to cross the European borders that are growing more monitored with every day that passes.

Because of the EU’s common migration policies, the external borders of the union are also those of Sweden. As a part of the research done for the cabaret Europa Europa, members of the research group travelled to a part of Sweden's external border that is one of the most commonly used ways of entry into Europe for people seeking refuge – Greece.

Someone once created Sweden, drew a line on a map, sewed a flag, wrote a song. It wasn't even that long ago. But someone wants us to forget. Helena Lindblom, editor and member of Ful, wants to revisit the circumstances under which the European nation states were created, and the traditions they derive from.

The development of EU migration policies is both chaotic and logical, in the sense that economic interests have driven it to a point where people are drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. This according to Peo Hansen, Associate Professor of Political Science at REMESO, Linköping University, who is interviewed by Europa Europa's Anneli Carnelid.

This year is the tenth anniversary of Frontex, a European bureau primarily tasked to strengthen the external borders of the EU. The crucial political decision to establish Frontex was made in October 2004. Less than six months later the operational work began. Frontex is the primary tool for the un-free movement into the EU.

Flyktingarna.se is a politically, organizationally and religiously independent organization that aims to spread personal stories told by people who have been affected by the European migration policies.

Deportation is an act of fascism and violence that sacrifices human beings in an extreme way to purify and strengthen a nation. Act Against Deportation (Aktion mot deportation) calls for individuals, networks, communities and organizations to take action in order to stop, disrupt or draw attention to deportations.

The Berlin cabaret died in the Nazi concentration camps, together with its producers and performers. Is it possible, in a time when fascism is once again advancing, to tell the story of migration as cabaret?

Ful

Ful is an art group consisting of artists from different fields, such as performing arts, illustration, dance, visual arts, music, sound art, literature, graphic design and web-based art and culture communication. Ful sees queer feminism and post-colonialism as a part of the esthetics, and makes no difference between form and content or art and politics.

The experimental performing arts project Ful Stage is an investigation of the queer feminist and post-colonial potential of the expression of performing arts. With a point of departure in work placement and an investigative esthetic that is process oriented, Ful Stage wants to highlight bodies and testimonies that we lack today, that we long for. Ful Stage also produced the performance HERE/HÄR at the Stockholm Stadsteater free stage. For more information visit tidskriftenful.se

Paulina Lasa and Moisés Horta

Paulina Lasa

Paulina Lasa was born in Mexico City in 1980, where ze studied Visual Arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (UNAM). Music has always been present parallel to Lasa’s work as a visual artist, and ze has recorded and performed with various projects; among these Pau y Amigos and Haciendo El Mal. Lasa is currently producing and performing under the alias NIMA IKKI, which is a project for exploring electronics and live looping using synthesizers and voice. Hir influences spans from a diversity of genres – from noise and drone to electro pop and folk music, and earlier this year “Mantras” was released on the highly respected underground label ENSEMBLE.

Moisés Horta

Moisés Horta was born in San Diego, California in 1988 but was raised south of the border in hectic Tijuana, México. In 2009 Horta coined the term Ruidosón; a developing musical, visual and philosophical aesthetic that takes influence from local traditional regional mexican sounds, rhythms and social contexts and juxtaposes them with futuristic global electronica making for an original ‘glocal’ border sound. The project Los Macuanos was born, pioneering a new local scene, along with other contemporary Tijuana based producers such María y José, Santos and Siete Catorce. In 2014 ze was in Stockholm for a 10 days residency at EMS Elektronmusikstudion. Ze currently resides between Tijuana and Mexico City, performing and producing with Los Macuanos as well as under the aliases DJ Nombre Apellido and HEXORCISMOS, which are latin-influenced electronic dance music and heavy experimental bass/drone projects respectively.